- UNIVERSITY ENROLLMENT DECLINE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Enrollment at the University of New Mexico has declined by 6.5% causing budget shortfalls across the campus.The Albuquerque Journal reported Monday that the overall 22,792-student enrollment is down by 1,600 fewer students compared to last fall.
Officials say enrollment includes undergraduates, graduate, law and medical students and others.
School officials say the decrease would result in an estimated $4 million budget shortfall, because tuition and fee revenue will be less than the school was predicting.
Officials say the decline is a residual effect from an unexpected 17% drop in freshmen last year and improvements to graduation rates.
Officials say it could also be that some students have decided to take basic courses at cheaper community colleges and some potential students have decided to work rather than enroll in college.
- ORGANIC FOOD-TRIBE
ZUNI PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — A tribe in western New Mexico is getting its first organic food store and deli.The Gallup Independent reports construction on Zuni Pueblo is beginning this week for the new store that will provide fresh and organic food and meats not available in the region.
Major Market Inc. President Darrell Tsabetsaye says the business is 100% owned by a Zuni family. He says the plan is to offer healthy food choices to the community, including organic produce and grass-fed organic meat.
Tsabetsaye's initiative is funded in part by the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, a nonprofit organization that was recently awarded a $1 million grant and program-related investment from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
- UNIVERSITY-GRID RESEARCH
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A team of researchers at New Mexico State University has received a second $5 million award from the National Science Foundation to continue with smart grid research.The grant was awarded through the foundation's Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology.
The work already has resulted in the publication of 150 peer-reviewed papers.
Officials say the goal is to strengthen the efficiency and sustainability of the electric grid by addressing infrastructure challenges and security issues. The effort also is aimed at developing a flexible workforce to support the industry.
Enrico Pontelli is the project's principal investigator and the dean of NMSU's College of Arts and Sciences. In the second phase, he says researchers will take what they've learned and apply it to other problems and other types of infrastructure.
- NEW MEXICO STATE-CONFERENCE
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia says the school may hire an outside consulting firm to help its football team join an athletic conference.Moccia told reporters in Albuquerque last week the university is looking into hiring a firm to assist the university in putting together a robust package after the school tried to do it alone.
Sun Belt Conference announced in 2016 it was dropping New Mexico State and Idaho from its football conference.
New Mexico State is in the Western Athletic Conference for other sports.
Moccia says the school is in an isolated region near the Mexico border but is close to the airport in El Paso, Texas.
The Aggies are 0-4 this season and are operating as an independent team.
- MEDICAL MARIJUANA-NEW MEXICO-THE LATEST
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A spokeswoman for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says state health officials hope to block a new court order that would open the state's medical marijuana program to out-of-state residents while it appeals the decision.Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Sackett said Monday in a statement that the state will seek a court stay to avoid issuing medical marijuana cards to patients outside the state as litigation proceeds.
The governor's office and state health officials say a residency requirement for medical marijuana patients was unintentionally deleted from state statute this year amid other reforms to the program.
A district court judge says the state must abide by a law that clearly allows nonresidents to apply for medical marijuana enrollment cards, and declined to reconsider that decision on Monday.
- BICYCLIST KILLED
HACHITA, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico State Police say a Georgia man has been killed after the bicycle he was riding was struck by a vehicle.They say 66-year-old Michael Rachelson of Norcross died Saturday north of Hachita.
State Police say an SUV driven by a man from Arkansas struck a cyclist who was also riding on State Road 146.
They say Rachelson was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to State Police, alcohol doesn't appear to be a contributing factor to the crash and there was no shoulder to the road in the area of the crash.
They say the crash remains under investigation and the SUV's driver isn't currently facing charges so his name isn't being released.
- TEACHER EVALUATIONS-NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico education officials say test scores and teacher attendance will no longer be included in the state's teacher evaluation system.The Albuquerque Journal reports the state Public Education Department recently released an outline of an interim teacher evaluation system that drops test scores and teacher attendance but keep observations and parent surveys.
Deputy Secretary Gwen Perea Warniment says the interim plan for the 2019-20 school year will be used while state officials work on a new system.
The change comes amid uncertainty after Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham scrapped much of the education reforms under former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
Teachers unions had been critical of the old evaluation system and said it wasn't a fair measurement of teachers. Supporters have said the state needs to maintain some stability to measure educators.
- ADIOS AMOR-MARIA MORENO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A new film dives into the mystery around a Latina labor leader who organized farmworkers years before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and then disappeared."Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno" on PBS focuses on a Mexican American mother of 12 who galvanized poor agricultural workers during the late 1950s and early 1960s until she vanished.
Director and producer Laurie Coyle says finding archive photos of Moreno sparked the idea. Coyle says a photographer and radio reporter remembered Moreno as an important advocate but didn't know what happened to her.
The documentary examines how the Texas-born farmworker emerged as a leader in California before moving to Arizona.
The film, a presentation of VOCES, PBS' Latino arts and culture documentary program, is slated to premiere Friday on most PBS stations.